Just wanted to share another developing idea in the area of fiction with you all! Enjoy =).

“Oh my…” One short, balding, and older archeologist brushed the dust off of a bronze plate with his foot, “Leon, you must see this. It is exquisite.”

A bold looking young man with black, lengthy hair turned and made his way to examine the bronze plate. After taking a few moments to look it over, he retrieved his cellular device from its place in his left pocket, pushed two buttons, and held the phone up to his ear.

“Yes, Brittany. Grab the other members of your team. Jake can work on uncovering the erechtheum. You guys come over to where I am. We found something.” Leon closed the flip-phone and placed it back in his pocket. “What do you suppose it says, Allen?”

The older man looked up toward Leon and back to the bronze plaque buried in the dirt, “This is not a language that I recognize. You’re the one overlooking this project, young man. Do you recognize it?”

Leon laughed, “Nope. You know I only oversee the project because I am not gentle enough excavate of smart enough to translate.”

The older man chuckled as he stood up, “I know how you feel. You would break the ground. The ground would break me, that’s why I can’t do it anymore.”

They both looked toward the West and saw two women and three men approaching them. One of the women had a camera around her neck and the men carried bags that contained within them tools for the initial excavation.

“Brittany,” Leon approached the group and walked with them toward the bronze plate, “very first thing. I need you to take a picture of this plate for me,” he pointed at the bronze plate, “so that I can have Nathan look at it.”

Brittany snapped a quick photo and a Polaroid picture came out of the front of the camera, “It doesn’t look Greek.”

As Leon took the picture, he turned to the rest of the crew, “I need to know if there is something around or beneath this plate.” Both him and Allen walked toward a large tent set up near the broader excavation site near the erechtheum.

When they arrived, they saw Nathan sitting at a dust-ridden table deciphering various ancient Greek texts. He looked up, and noticing both Leon and Allen began to speak, “Sir, I think I may know why this city was deserted.”

Leon and Allen both approached the table. Leon questioned Nathan, “Was it not the famous earthquake?”

“It may have been,” Nathan replied, “but these texts describe a great army coming out of the ground. It describes them as large demons with swords and unlimited power. They came out of the ground and began to slaughter citizens. Here it claims that the surviving people of this city fled, for fear that the same thing would happen later. After the attack, the monsters supposedly went back into the ground, screaming.”

“Sounds like fiction,” Allen stated, “Leon, see if he recognizes those symbols.”

“Right,” Leon responded while handing the picture over to Nathan, “I need to know what language this might be and if you would be able to decipher it.”

Nathan took the photo and examined it, “Yeah, I recognize it. It matches the symbols in these manuscripts describing the horrific event that I was telling you about.”

Leon hesitated, “Tell me more about these stories,” he pointed at the manuscripts.

“Do not even tell me that you are considering this to be valid, Leon,” Allen shook his head. “It’s irrational, son.”

“Allen, you are the one who taught me to always consider every possibility,” Leon paused, “And if these things did not happen, then we at least need to be able to explain why the stories exists and why the symbols in the story match the symbols out there.” He turned to Nathan, “Do you recognize what language it might be?”

Nathan looked more closely, “No. It’s so strange. Even if I haven’t studied a language in depth, I think I would recognize one that has been used. I mean, that’s why I went to school. It is definitely not Greek, and definitely not Aramaic or Latin.”

“Okay,” Leon turned, “Keep trying to figure it out. I am going to check on the crew who is working the site.”

Allen stayed in the large tent while Leon made his way back to the bronze plate. To his satisfaction, the crew was working diligently. “Think there is anything else here?” Leon asked.

Brittany handed the camera to one of the guys and stood next to Leon, “Well, we haven’t been at it long enough to tell if there is anything really there. But we did find two pathways that look promising. Concentric circles with the bronze plate at their center. The diameter of the first lies just outside the plate, while the diameter of the second reaches thirty feet across. The ground is harder on these two paths than it is everywhere else. That’s where we will start on this site.”

“Buzz, buzz, buzz.” Leon reached once again for his phone so that he could read the incoming text. It was from Jake and read, “You are going to want to see this…”

Leon told Brittany that they had done an extravagant job, and then turned and moved hastily toward the erechtheum.

When he arrived, Jake found him and pulled him by the arm to the center of the ancient Greek building. One of the strange symbols that occupied the surface of the bronze plate was drawn with what looked like paint. It dominated a large portion of the floor.

“Does it move?” asked Leon.

Jake thought for a moment, “I should. It is not a part of the original floor. See the color difference. The floor has been in place longer because it is less white.”

Leon looked more closely, and sure enough there was a circular region of the floor that was whiter than the rest of the floor and contained the large symbol, “How do we move it then?”

Jake responded, “I. I wouldn’t even know where to start. Whoever placed it there did not want it to be moved… If, uh,” Jake thought for a moment, “If it was placed there after the floor was, then it might be thinner than the floor…”

“Are you insinuating that we might be able to shatter a major archeological find in order to dig beneath it? I’m not sure the historical society would be very pleased…” Leon smiled.

Jake imitated Leon’s smile, “Just a thought…”

“What are you boys looking at?” asked Allen as he stumbled into the ancient Greek building carrying a pickaxe. “Oh, look at that!” Looking as if he was full of excitement, Allen fell over driving the tip of his tool into the thin layer of marble.

“Allen!” Leon hastily helped his old friend to his feet. As he did, he noticed that Allen was smiling.

Allen spoke up, “I just couldn’t listen to you boys try and figure out how to lift that thing up. See, I started it for you.”

Leon looked at the pickaxe that was still driven into the thin layer of rock. He then looked at Jake and shrugged his shoulders, “Crazy old man.”

Jake took the tool and began to drive it into the surface of the replaced portion of the building’s floor.

After creating a small, fist-size hole in the rock, Jake peered through it. As some of the accumulating dust cleared, he jumped back and tried to catch his breath. Leon laughed, and Jake followed by chuckling, “Startled me…”

Leon gazed into the small hole to see what looked like the face of a skeleton, “These buildings are not usually built over grave sites…”

Allen spoke up, “The grave was put in after the building was already here, and not by Greeks. They would have erected a burial tomb and monument.”

“Leon!” Brittany stumbled into the structure while catching her breath and pointed through the broken wall toward the bronze plate, “Look!”

Jake, Allen, and Leon looked through the wall to see what looked like a force field that matched the diameter of the outer circle Brittany had pointed out.

Leon, followed closely by the others, walked toward the abnormal construction. After picking up one of the nearby rocks, Leon proceeded to toss the rock at the structure. To his surprise, the projectile vanished as soon as it touched the transparent blue dome. Leon approached the dome, hesitated and took a deep breath, then walked into it, disappearing from sight.